


Little White Lies

by kamalakhan



Category: Green Lantern (Comics), Justice League - All Media Types, The Flash (Comics), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Gen, M/M, don't expect any type of canon relating to the cw'verse please, or any type of canon in general tbh this is all super weird
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-08
Updated: 2015-12-08
Packaged: 2018-05-05 17:15:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5383817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kamalakhan/pseuds/kamalakhan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>OR: "The One Where Hal And Barry Are Both Superheroes But Don't Tell The Other Their Secret Identity Because They Think The Other Is A Civilian And Don't Want To Put Them In Danger And Totally Have Crushes On Each Other"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Little White Lies

No one was really quite sure how Barry Allen and Hal Jordan were such good friends. No one was really sure how they had become friends at all, in all honesty. Their personalities were not ones that normally meshed together well – Hal cocky, wise-cracking and easy-going, Barry somewhat serious, very deadpan and hard-working – but they balanced out each other so well people who got to know them together found it hard to imagine them not getting along.

When the pair had first met, first day of college in Coast City, they had hated each other practically on sight. Barry was never able to focus on his studies thanks to whatever Hal was doing – whatever Hal did, he did it loudly – and Hal just never understood why his roommate was such a killjoy. It took several months and several conversations both drunk and sober for them to truly begin to understand each other and see the other’s point of view. They still complained about each other, but anybody other than the two themselves insulting them was quickly told off and/or punched down. Needless to say, Hal did most of the punching. By the time they were finishing up their courses, Hal and Barry were practically inseparable.

Moving back home to different cities after spending so much time inhabiting the same space every day was an adjustment, and Barry would be lying if he said it was always easy. He stayed in contact with Hal as best as he could, of course, but just wasn’t the same as talking to him every day. Their phone calls and trips to visit each other gradually became increasingly rare before becoming practically non-existent. Barry began working at the police department, Hal finally got the job he'd always wanted at Ferris Air - things were working out. Until the particle accelerator opened, and everything went to hell, for better or worse.

* * *

When Barry woke up from his coma, his first stop was to visit Iris at Jitters. The grin that split her face was so ecstatic that Barry felt himself tingle all over. After making sure he was well enough to be standing and walking around and hugging him within an inch of his life, Iris started gushing with excitement.

“We’ve got to go visit my dad, he’s been so worried! And I promised Hal I’d call him if you woke up!”

The gears in Barry’s head came to a stop with an almost audible screech.

“Hal. Hal as in my old roommate?” Iris frowned at him.

“Of course! He was super worried about you!” Barry felt like his entire world had been tipped upside down and he wasn’t sure why. He’d always done his best to keep Hal “Casanova’s got nothing on me” Jordan (a direct quote) away from the girl he might maybe have a huge crush on, who also happened to be both one of his absolutely best friends in the world and ridiculously gorgeous.

“Please tell me he didn’t use me as an excuse to ask you out.”

“Barry, he’s your best friend! He wouldn’t!”

“As someone who lived with him for several years, he definitely would!” Iris rolled her eyes, a smile twitching at her lips.

“He was a perfect gentleman, okay? Plus, I’m kinda seeing someone, so... You mustn’t tell my dad, though!”

Barry felt like he was stuck in slow motion, like in a cheesy film. He struggled to keep his smile in place. Barry was not very good at falling in love. When he fell in love, he fell _hard_ , and for the wrong person.

Suddenly, he realized that he really _was_ stuck in slow motion. Whoa.

* * *

It took a while for Barry to properly establish himself as a hero – _the_ hero of Central City. Having a base of operations and a certain amount of help from the people at Star Labs was very helpful, but one of the hardest parts was managing to ensure that the people he cared about didn’t find out he was a freaking superhero. It was a huge responsibility, but Barry was more than happy to bear the burden. He had even teamed up with some of the other superheroes around, which had been seriously amazing – Superman had been surprisingly friendly, Batman not so much. The hero nearest to Central, Green Arrow, he hadn’t met yet, but Barry had a feeling he’d meet him soon. He hadn’t felt this happy in ages, so of course something had to go wrong. Of course.

* * *

Ever since Hal had first been told that Barry had woken up, he had become what Barry could only describe as overprotective, as strange as it was to believe. While Hal didn’t act much different toward him, he spent practically all of his free time visiting him in Central – his excuse of being hooked on the coffee was starting to wear a little thin. Not that Barry was complaining, being able to spend time with Hal was something he hadn’t realized he’d missed until he’d been subjected to Hal’s endless ribbing, dumb jokes and friendly headlocks. Not that he’d ever admit out loud that he’d missed it, of course. Especially not to Joe, who kept shooting him knowing looks whenever he started complaining that Hal was yelling at the TV too loud because seriously, sports are not that exciting, and God, did Hal not know that being a stereotypical high school jock hadn’t been cool since the 80s or something, come on!

Hal and Iris had hit it off instantly, as Barry later found out. Hal wasn’t subtle at all – this was _Iris_ , _Barry’s_ Iris, the Iris he never shut up about in college, but thankfully Iris never seemed to notice anything. Iris claimed to be outraged that Barry had never introduced them before, and Barry didn’t really have an excuse himself. They got on like a house on fire, and Barry was scared for himself, Eddie, Joe and Central City in general.

Hal and Joe literally bonded over football and Barry found that so hilariously cliché that the headlock Hal pulled him into in retribution was probably quite deserved, actually. They’d barely been able to hear the commentator over the sound of Barry’s sniggering.

Hal soon became such a staple at the West household that Barry almost began worrying as soon as Hal didn’t show up when he said he would, which was ridiculous, because this was _Harold Jordan_ he was talking about. Hal was still convinced fashionably late was still a thing, and often deliberately arrived even later than Barry did – how he timed it, Barry never knew, as Barry always aimed to get to places on time but it never seemed to work out. Hal was fine, he was sure of it.

The buzzing of his phone dragged him out of his musing. _Incoming Call: Iris_.

“Hey, what’s up?” Iris didn’t usually call at this time of day, and he knew for a fact she was on a date with Eddie at the moment.

 _“Barry, I’m coming over. Are you doing okay?”_ The mixture of sadness, pity and anxiousness in her voice filled Barry’s stomach with dread.

“What’s going on? What are you talking about?” Iris sucked in a quick gasp of a breath. 

 _"It's all over the news, Bar. Hal’s plane crashed. I’m so sorry-”_ Barry felt his fingers go numb. He almost dropped his phone, could feel himself starting to vibrate uncontrollably. He needed to run, run away from his thoughts and _Hal_ and the fact that he’d told him this was the way he had been afraid to die, just like his father-

_“-Barry?”_

“Iris, I-“ He didn’t know how to finish that sentence. _“_

 _I’m so sorry, Bar. I’ll meet you at home in ten minutes, okay?”_ Dumbly, he nodded, fought to speak around the lump forming in his throat.

“I- Yeah, ten minutes.”

Ten minutes. Time enough to run.

**Author's Note:**

> ok so this is really badly written but it's basically just setting the scene and i'm too lazy to write it out properly. i'm being super liberal with the whole universe, as you probably guessed already, and i'm basically just taking the really basic background of the cw flash and completely ignoring everything else lmao
> 
> also i'm planning on writing ollie more like he is in the comics rather than in arrow as i personally am not a fan of his character in the show, so expect a wise-cracking dumbass who's hopelessly in love with dinah and hal's bff (this is kind of important bc i need someone to laugh at them for not figuring out that they have a crush on each other and not knowing their secret identities and i feel like ollie's the best choice bc reasons)
> 
> this whole thing is a mess and i'm kind of sorry but also not really


End file.
